any power exercises are good too, especially when it comes to a good start off the blocks.

GermanAesthetic

03-03-2013, 09:10 PM

You'll want to work with low rep strength training to increase your explosiveness especially in sprint races. Incline presses, anything shoulders, triceps and back is huge for your stroke, stick to squats, deads, and pylo training like box jumps for your legs.

I started swimming again recently and my times in the 50 and 100 free dropped due to getting stronger without any swim training in months.

redcaesar

03-05-2013, 05:02 PM

Just started back at swimming with new body. Will be interesting to see how my times have changed .

Check out my before pic...

For you swimmers, what is your opinion of a good lifting routine for swimmers, I'm thinking maybe....

Upper body:
- incline db press
- overhead press
- db pull over

Lower body:
- Squats

Abs:
- flutter kicks
- crunchs

Also, at some point, it seems like increasing the lift weights may not be helpful - instead one would just increase the reps... any thoughts on what that point may be??

SwimGym

05-10-2013, 06:46 AM

For you swimmers, what is your opinion of a good lifting routine for swimmers, I'm thinking maybe....

Upper body:
- incline db press
- overhead press
- db pull over

Lower body:
- Squats

Abs:
- flutter kicks
- crunchs

Also, at some point, it seems like increasing the lift weights may not be helpful - instead one would just increase the reps... any thoughts on what that point may be??

From my experience as a swimmer, and attending a great university squad in the UK I will suggest:

Your programme should change throughout the season.
During your time off hit some general hypertrophy, as we all know swimmers have a hard time putting on muscle mass due to the 4+ hours cardio in the pool we do per day, burning 1000s of calories. So hypertrophy in your time off is what a lot of swimmers i train with are told to do.
start of the season we usually hit 3 sets (with two warm up sets) of around 8-12 reps, just to gain some foundations on some big moves.
throughout the season we gradually lowere the rep range, ending at 3 sets of 3 reps. increasing the weight as neccasary.

this is adjusted and excersises are swapped for a similar one every 6-8 weeks, where the reps are also adjusted.
between these heavy lifts we also do some core/stability works. (we do LOTS of this) including:
supermans, kneeling supermen, pressup supermen, plank variations, side planks, shoulder retractions, moneky flys, glute bridge variations, straight arm pressups, one legged squats, arabesques, squat thrusts (with a band)... im sure you can find a lot of core/stability work, just make sure you do alot of it.
This is important to be able to swim without your hips dropping, over rotating, ultimately to maintain efficient body position in the water. This is what swimming fast is about! BODY POSITION.
of course the stability work will work your abs to an extent, I always make sure to target my abs properly at least twice a week.

REP ME, and ill try to answer any more questions.

opeleroy1980

12-30-2015, 10:32 AM

Throw some roll-outs with an ab wheel in there as well.

MichaelBack27

12-31-2015, 09:55 AM

Basic strength training program such as starting strength would work well. Instead of bench press do Incline Press. Also incorporate dips, and put a focus on back excercises to especially pullups.

This is just an example. Keep it simple. Hit horizontal push/pull and vertical push/pull and train your legs every session. Keep exc. similar especially when you start and write down your progress.
Keep stretching, the biggest difference you will notice is the shoulders being tight somedays more than others and on days where you do alot of Fly you might feel that tightness if you trained right before practice.

I did this myself when i swam and I lifted 2x a day and swam 2x a day when I swam in College. my numbers kept dropping and my lifts went up and I got bigger and my numbers still kept dropping. Biggest thing: take care of your shoulders, its easy to overuse your shoulders and get an injury.